The publisher is assuming that all Legends platforms will allow cross-play and cross-progression.

By Nick Santangelo

Bethesda Softworks is pressuring Sony to change its much-maligned ban on cross-play, but not for its tentpole holiday release. Eurogamer reports that The Elder Scrolls: Legends, not Fallout 76, is the game for which Bethesda most wants Sony to change its policy.

While "it would be nice" to have cross-play on Fallout 76, said Bethesda Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications Pete Hines, it's "OK" if that's not possible.

"But for Legends it's absolutely critical," Hines continued, "both cross-play, which is how Legends works right now on every device – you're playing against somebody who could be on any device – and, more importantly, cross-platform progression, which means no matter what you do on any platform, you load up the game and so long as you're logged in, here is all your progression, here is everything you had, everything you were doing."

As was pointed out to Hines in the interview, Fornite, unquestionably the biggest game in the world at the moment, suffers from this very problem with cross-play thanks to Sony. PlayStation 4 Fortnite players are walled off from those on platforms, who can play together and, perhaps more importantly, transfer their in-game progress across platforms.

With Epic Games unable to get Sony to budge on its policy for the biggest game there is, Hines was asked if it's realistic to think Bethesda can change their mind for a much smaller game. Hines couldn't say for sure but stated Bethesda is "continuing to work on it." Nevertheless, he added that Bethesda is operating with the assumption that any platform it releases The Elder Scrolls: Legends on "must support cross-progression and cross-play."

Hines then said Bethesda is "always" talking with Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Apple, and Google about the issue, taking care to note that he wasn't trying to single Sony out. And yet, Sony is the lone holdout on cross-play and cross-progression. Given this reality and Hines' statement that Bethesda is assuming all Legends platforms will have cross-play and cross-progression, is it possible the PlayStation 4 release could be pulled if Sony doesn't change its policy?

A sneak peak at The Elder Scrolls: Legends' redesigned play area.

"I imagine the answer is fairly dire, but I don't want to jump to conclusions yet because there's a lot of space between 'yes' and 'no,'" said Hines. "What if they so 'no' to this but 'yes' to this?

That's a situation under which Bethesda would "continue to have a conversation with any platform directly" to try to "figure it out."